cookiesinheaven

Labels: food prices, inflation, prices, restaurants

Salmon prices, which gained as much as a third in the U.S. this year, may extend the rally as a virus hurts output in Chile, the nation’s biggest publicly traded producer said.

Prices may rise a further 20 percent this year amid tumbling output in Chile, the world’s second-largest supplier of the fish, said Jason Paine, head of the U.S. unit of Puerto Montt, Chile-based Multiexport Foods SA. Exports to the U.S. could fall as much 60 percent by year’s end, he said.- Bloomberg

Labels: Chile, Food Imports, food prices, prices, salmon, shortages

Aid organizations around the world face budget shortfalls because of a rise in global food prices. The Rome-based World Food Program will have to reduce food shipments to disaster-hit places such as Darfur unless it can close a $500 million deficit.

Food prices have soared 55% since June alone, according to the WFP. The higher costs have resulted from rising oil prices, the use of crops for biofuels and skyrocketing demand for food in developing economies such as China and India.

The amount of food aid delivered abroad by the U.S. government has fallen 43% from 2002-07, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office. - USAToday

...The warning comes as Egypt mobilises its army to bake more bread and overcome severe shortages that have led to disturbances in long queues forming outside bakeries. Four people have died in clashes amid claims that subsidised flour has been sold off for profit on the black market. - The Guardian

Labels: Food, food supply, Hunger, prices

....Short supplies have raised the price of wheat worldwide and sparked protests over the cost of tortillas in Mexico and pasta in Italy. In the United States, it's raised the cost of such basic goods as bread, cereal and pizza.

...The price of bakery and cereal products rose 1.8% in February, the largest monthly increase since January 1975. Overall, the cost of eating at home has risen more than 5% so far this year, the fastest rate since 1990.

...The plight facing small bread makers like Bohbot -- and much larger businesses such as Sara Lee Corp. -- prompted the American Bakers Assn. to hold a protest march in Washington, D.C., last week.

Labels: baking, Bread, prices, wheat

....as we head into this future that's been "set in stone for us already," it's important to note that 10.9 percent of U.S. households, representing 12.6 million families, already qualify as "food insecure" by USDA standards. For these folks -- and for people in the global south who have been rioting in response to being priced out of the food market -- spiraling costs may be impossible to accept, no matter what the former Conagra guy says. They will be forced into wrenching decisions -- what to eliminate from their budgets to keep the food coming. - Grist

Labels: Food, food insecurity, prices

From pastries to pasta, the price of just about everything made with wheat is going up.

Blame the trend on a biblical bout of bad weather -- drought, freezes and floods -- that has decimated wheat crops and created shortages around the world.

Wheat futures hit a record of $8.87 a bushel in Chicago trading last week before retreating to $8.75 on Monday. Still, that's a huge jump from $3.95 a year ago.

"This is a historic level. There is no way we can cut costs fast enough or deep enough to handle this type of huge increase in wheat," said Bill Nictakis, president of the fresh bakery division at Sara Lee Corp.

...Shoppers in Rome are threatening pasta boycotts to protest rising prices. In Lanzhou in western China workers are complaining about paying more at the industrial city's 3,000 noodle shops. - Latte Times

Labels: boycotts, prices, wheat